The 4Rs for cover crops and other advances in cover crop management for environmental quality

Abstract

Humans have used soil resources for thousands of years. Human use has degraded and eroded soil worldwide in ways that damage food production, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. A direct implication of soil degradation is that soil scarcity will become a critical future problem for global agricultural production. With limited new lands for cultivation worldwide and a projected increase in global population to 10 billion this century, long-term agricultural sustainability is an increasing global concern. To conserve soil, better agricultural methods that sustain the soil are needed (Montgomery 2007). Soil management must focus on regaining a balance in (1) organic carbon (C) inputs and losses, (2) soil erosion and production, and (3) release and loss of nutrients (Amundson et al. 2015). Soil does far more than just support farming and forestry. It stores C, filters water, transforms nutrients, and sustains plant and animal biodiversity by conservation of critical shrinking wildlife habitat. It is unclear how these essential processes will respond to agricultural intensification, or how they might be enhanced in tandem with farming (Banwart 2011).